Chinese Microblogging Site Bans ‘Occupy’ Search Terms

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Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo—said to resemble the lovechild of Facebook and Twitter—is reportedly filtering out search results containing the word “occupy” when paired with the names of various places.

China Digital Times (CDT) reports:

“As the Occupy Wall Street movement goes global, China’s call for calm observation and reflection may have been followed by another round of censorship in cyberspace. A long list of banned keywords on Sina Weibo’s search function has been uncovered and tested by the CDT team yesterday. All the listed phrases stick to one simple rule: a combination of “occupy” (占领) and a place name–provincial capitals, economically developed regions, and few symbolic local areas.”

This may not come as that big of a surprise, considering what TIME’s Global Spin blog reported back in August:

“Earlier this month, a top Chinese Communist Party official admonished domestic microblog service Weibo to promote the ‘Internet’s healthy development,’ which China-watcher Russell Leigh Moses sees as ‘code words for staying away from topics which attack the rule of the Communist Party or hold officials up for public ridicule.'”

[via Good.is]